Song of the day: Marcia Hines – "(Until) Your Love Broke Through"

Although this song has already appeared here as part of a previous Musical coincidence, I wanted to highlight it because I think it’s one of the loveliest pop ballads to have come out of Australia in the 70’s.

Before Marcia Hines became the “everyone’s great!” judge* on Australian Idol she was a pop queen. (A real one: Marcia was crowned Queen of Pop in Australia three years in a row from 1976-1978.)

Anyway, here’s Marcia with the ineffable “(Until) Your Love Broke Through” (1976):

Marcia Hines – “(Until) Your Love Broke Through” (1976)

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For me, especially in the chorus, a pop ballad doesn’t get much better than that. As a bonus, here’s the original version:

Keith Green – “Your Love Broke Through” (1977)

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By the way, you can read more about the song (if you’re keen enough) on the Musical coincidence page that originally featured it.

(*Like Paula Abdul on American Idol.)

Musical coincidences # 22

I was listening to Marcia Hines‘ Greatest Hits 1975-1983*, and up came track 4, “Don’t Let The Grass Grow” (1975). The whole vibe of the song – chord changes, lyrics, the beat, just about everything in it – sounded very familiar. Here’s the chorus:

Marcia Hines – “Don’t Let The Grass Grow” (1975) (excerpt)

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And here’s the chorus of The Jacksons‘ “Blame It On The Boogie” (1978):

The Jacksons – “Blame It On The Boogie“ (1978) (excerpt)

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The two are so similar that I reckon you could even interchange the lyrics and no-one would notice: “Don’t let the grass grow / Don’t blame it on the moonlight / Don’t let the time go / ‘Cause if I get lonely / Blame it on the boogie” etc.

“Don’t Let The Grass Grow” was written by David Buskin and recorded by Marcia for her 1975 debut album, Marcia Shines. It was released as a single in May 1976.

Incidentally, I love Wikipedia’s description of David:

David Buskin (born December, 13, 1943 New York City) is a singer, songwriter, performer, author, playwright, jingle composer and girls’ basketball coach.

Although “Blame It On The Boogie” is known the world over (well, the parts of the world that have heard it) as a Jacksons song, it wasn’t originally theirs. It was first written and recorded by Mick Jackson who, apparently, is not related in any way to the rather famous Jackson clan. Mick Jackson recorded the song in 1977, a year or so after Marcia recorded “Don’t Let The Grass Grow,” which leads me to wonder just how coincidental it all is, and if Mick Jackson was indeed “influenced” by the Marcia ditty.

Here are the full versions to illustrate how similar the two songs really are (and they really are similar):

Marcia Hines – “Don’t Let The Grass Grow” (1975)

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The Jacksons – “Blame It On The Boogie“ (1978)

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And here’s the original “Blame It On The Boogie” by Mick Jackson, which has some of the weirdest background vocals I’ve ever heard:

Mick Jackson – “Blame It On The Boogie“ (1977)

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(*Which reminds me: courtesy of that Greatest Hits 1975-1983 album, Marcia’s “(Until) Your Love Broke Through” which appeared on my earlier post involving Marcia Hines has been updated with much better sound.)

Musical coincidences # 20

How’s this for a complete coincidence?

I was over at Popdose reading about an act from the US, Dreaming In Stereo, who play a fusion of power pop and prog rock (they describe themselves as “prog pop”). I played one of the songs in the post, “The Will To Love” (2009). Here’s the start of it:

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The melody that begins the song hit me immediately. It reminded me, almost note-for-note (especially when they sing “the will to love”) of the beginning of the chorus in Marcia Hines‘ 1976 hit, the utterly gorgeous “(Until) Your Love Broke Through”:

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Sheer coincidence. It can’t be anything else – unless a member of Dreaming In Stereo is a fan of Marcia Hines. But that’s mighty unlikely.

Anyway, here’s the full version of Dreaming In Stereo’s “The Will To Love”:

Dreaming In Stereo – “The Will To Love” (2009)

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And here’s the full version of Marcia Hines’s “(Until) Your Love Broke Through,” complete with its brain-melting chorus:

Marcia Hines – “(Until) Your Love Broke Through” (1976)

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I just found out that there is the possibility that one of the musicians in Dreaming In Stereo has heard “(Until) Your Love Broke Through” at some stage. Courtesy of the Intertubes, I now know that “(Until) Your Love Broke Through” was written by American Christian musician Keith Green along with Randy Stonehill and Todd Fishkind, and it seems that piles of other American musicians have covered it, too. On YouTube alone, there are versions by:

• Keith Green (“thoughtful pianist/singer” version with generous amounts of tremolo in the vocals)
• Phil Keaggy (“soft country rock” version which may not float your boat, but Phil’s a great guitarist)
• Randy Stonehill and Mike Pachelli (“two thoughtful dudes with guitars” version*)
• Rebecca St James (“trance-hop” version – and I wish I was making that up)

Although they’re different in their own ways, the one thing that the above male artists have in common is that they all have trouble with the high notes – but I think that anyone not named Marcia Hines would have trouble with ’em.

Incidentally, all of the artists in that list are Christian. (It looks like the CCM market has the song sewn up.) I don’t know why non-Christian artists don’t cover this song, because there’s nothing overtly “you’re my favourite God” about the lyrics – they’re pretty much yer standard love song lyrics.

There are quite a few studio versions of the song, but I decided against overloading this post by putting them all here. I love this song, but I’m aware that you’d have your limits.

However, I will put just one more here. It’s the original by Keith Green (even though it was released after Marcia Hines’s version):

Keith Green – “Your Love Broke Through” (1977)

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(*At one point in their version, the chaps invite the audience to sing along with them in the chorus, which I think was A Bad Idea, because I reckon no-one can sing it properly except for Marcia Hines.)